As a method for winding a wire on a reel, the following method is conventionally known: a wire is guided to a reel body via a guide roller (traverse guide roller) placed at a distance radially from the reel body so as not to interfere with a reel flange, and wound by rotating the reel while moving the reel or the guide roller in the reel axis direction to move (traverse) the winding position. In this method, however, since there is a considerable distance between the wound surface on the outer circumference of the reel body and the guide roller, leeway occurs, resulting in that a deviation occurs between the movement of the winding position of the wire on the reel body and the movement of the reel or the guide roller. In particular, traverse adjustment at the reversal of the movement at both ends of the reel body is not easy, and thus the wound surface cannot be controlled. For this reason, when regular winding of a wire is attempted by this method, an intended wound surface is not obtained, but the wire piles up. Once it piles up to a given extent, the pile collapses, and this causes entanglement. Also, when cross winding is performed by this method, where the winding pitch is large, the influence of the leeway caused by the large distance between the wound surface and the guide roller on the finishing of the wound surface is comparatively small. In this case, however, since the reeled-out wire digs into space between lines of the wire, the wire tends to acquire flaws. Also, the winding thickness becomes large, forming voids within the wound wire. The articles tend to collapse during preparation for shipping, and this also causes entanglement and flaws.
When the distance between the wound surface and the guide roller is large, it is not possible to control the wound surface, failing to perform regular winding, as described above. In view of this, the following method is also considered: using a large-diameter disc-shaped guide roller, the outer edge of the roller is placed as close to the wound surface as possible, to wind the wire. According to this method, by bringing the roller outer edge as close to the wound surface as possible, the movement of the winding position of the wire on the reel body can be made to roughly coincide with the movement of the reel or the guide roller. In this method, however, when it is intended to wind the wire up to a reel flange border, the guide roller may collide against the reel flange because the reel flange has variations in machining accuracy and deformation. The reel deforms after many times of use. Also, since the reel is put into an oven together with the wire during annealing, deformation of the reel is unavoidable. For this reason, to avoid the collision, the setting of the traverse must be adjusted every winding task, and this takes time. If an allowance is given to the setting to avoid the collision, the approach to the flange border becomes loose, resulting in a shape of drum winding that is quite different from regular winding.
Also, as a method of permitting the wire to be wound up to the reel flange border while bringing the roller outer edge close to the wound surface, a method is proposed where the guide roller is placed so as to be inclinable in the reel axis direction relative to a rotational axis, as the rotation center, located at the roller outer edge on the side apart from the outer circumference of the reel body. At the time of traverse reversal near the flange border of the reel body at either end, the movement of the reel in the axis direction is stopped, and, while the guide roller is angled and inclined so that the roller outer edge comes close to the reel flange border on the reel side, the reel is rotated to wind the wire on the reel body at the flange border. At a midpoint position of the reel body, while the reel is moved continuously in the axis direction at a constant speed, the guide roller is angled so as to wind the wire on the reel body by one rotation at a time (see Patent Document 1, for example). According to this method, the guide roller is inclined at both ends of the reel body to enable winding of the wire up to the flange borders, and thus regular winding can be performed. In this method, however, not only at the time of traverse reversal, but also at the midpoint position of the reel body, it is necessary to move the rotational axis of the guide roller forward or backward with respect to the reel body, every time the guide roller is angled, in response to the inclination so as to ensure that the guide roller is not apart from the reel, and this makes the control complicated. Also, when the guide roller is inclined, the pitch of the traverse changes when the reel moves at a constant speed, for example. For this reason, in order to keep the pitch of the traverse constant, pitch adjustment is necessary for the reel or the guide roller every time the guide roller is angled. This control is complicated and costly.
The following method has also been considered. As in the above method, the guide roller is placed so as to be inclinable in the reel axis direction relative to the rotational axis, as the rotation center, located at the roller outer edge on the side apart from the outer circumference of the reel body, and the roller outer edge is inclined to be close to the reel flange located ahead in the traverse direction on the side near the reel body. In this method, however, the inclining direction of the guide roller is switched to the opposite direction at the midpoint position of the reel body, and the guide roller is inclined at all times except for this switching time. With the guide roller kept inclined in this way, while the reel, for example, is moved in the axis direction for traverse, the reel is rotated to wind the wire thereon. According to this method, where traverse is performed with the guide roller kept inclined, it is unnecessary to move the guide roller forward or backward in response to the inclination of the guide roller. Also, since the inclining direction of the guide roller does not change during one back and forth traverse motion, control of the pitch adjustment is comparatively easy. However, in this case, also, the inclining direction of the guide roller is switched for every back and forth traverse motion, and at this switching, the guide roller rotates around the rotation center located at the roller outer edge on the side apart from the outer circumference of the reel body. Therefore, the winding position of the wire to be wound on the reel body is slightly deviated in the reel axis direction, changing the traverse pitch. For this reason, in order to keep the pitch constant, control of moving the reel or the guide roller in the reel axis direction is necessary, which is not easy.
To address the above problem, the present applicant focused attention on a traverse device and method as follows, and filed an application for a patent previously (Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-210616). As in the above methods, the guide roller is made inclinable in the reel axis direction so that the roller outer edge is inclined in a direction toward the reel flange located ahead in the traverse direction on the side near the reel body. In this case, however, the rotation center for the inclination of the guide roller is located at the outer edge on the side near the outer circumference of the reel body. The inclining direction of the guide roller is switched at the midpoint position of the reel body, and the traverse is performed with the guide roller kept inclined. Using this technique, the winding position is hardly deviated at the switching of the inclining direction, and thus the pitch of the traverse can be kept roughly constant.